Chances are, if you’re working on a design project, you’re using an Adobe product. Since its introduction nearly 30 years ago, the creative software giant has expanded and become an indispensable asset in the design industry. With more than 20 desktop and mobile apps accessible via the Creative Cloud, Adobe dominates the digital graphic creation market seemingly unrivaled. Several products, including CorelDRAW, Inkscape and Sketch, have tried to compete, but at the end of the day Illustrator still comes out ahead. The most recent challenger? Affinity Designer launched in late 2014 and promises to give Adobe a run for its subscription fees.

But does it deliver? We took a look at three essential design components—tool sets, import/export file capability and workspace features—and reviewed how Affinity Designer stacks up in comparison with Illustrator.

What is Affinity Designer?
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Created by UK-based Serif Labs, Affinity Designer is a vector graphics editor designed as an alternative to Adobe’s Illustrator. Serif was established in the 1990s as a developer of low-cost, PC/Windows desktop publishing software for entry-level users. Now the company is taking on the graphics software market for Mac. Available for $49.99, Affinity Designer could be easily dismissed as another cheap graphics program aimed at amateurs, but it was created specifically for professional designers accustomed to working in a Mac environment. With the ability to edit and create pixel layers, Affinity Designer ostensibly functions as an Illustrator/Photoshop hybrid—but could it be an attractive alternative to designers who work frequently in both programs? Does Affinity Designer offer enough features to sway long-time Adobe users? Or is it better suited for beginners?

Tool sets
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For new designers and old pros, Affinity Designer offers a modern, intuitive user interface that allows users to transition almost seamlessly between it and Illustrator. Budding designers will find all the necessary tools clearly organized and accessible and the default toolbars and keyboard shortcuts will feel familiar to Adobe users. The learning curve is more like a gentle slope for designers experienced in Illustrator or Photoshop.

Affinity Designer comes with all the standard pen and shape tools to complete complex vector and pixel-based artwork. With the persona toolbar—which divides vector, pixel and export tools into three separate sets—users can switch between tool sets without interruption to workflow. For designers who work in Photoshop and Illustrator simultaneously, using Affinity Designer may be a time saver. Users who are dependent on classic Photoshop tools such as the magic wand or cloning brush will need to spend another $49.99 for Affinity Photo, Affinity Designer’s sister program, released in 2015.

Experienced vector artists and infographic designers will find a noticeable lack of the more advanced tools found in Illustrator CC. For example, the current release of Affinity Designer does not include a perspective grid or column graph tool.

Importing and exporting files
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Whether sharing working files with a team or updating templates created on another platform, compatibility is an issue that very few graphics programs have addressed in the past. While other non-Adobe programs could convert PSD or EPS files and open in a non-editable format, Affinity Designer is able to open and edit PSD, AI and EPS with relative ease. Updating outdated logos in a native AI file created in CS2 can be completed within Affinity Designer in minutes. Saving back to AI, however, is not possible. Despite being a vector editor, Affinity Designer exports to PSD instead. Exporting completed files is easier as the separate export dialog saves to EPS, PDF, PNG, JPG, GIF and TIFF formats.

Because Adobe offers a broader range of features and settings, some of these may not be preserved when importing into Affinity Designer. For example, pattern overlays and other effects or filters can get dropped from imported PSD files and imported AI files may not preserve grouped objects.

Workspace Features
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Affinity Designer comes up short against Adobe Illustrator in workspace options. Illustrator CC offers multiple Workspaces pre-set for different types of design jobs—web design, automation and pre-press proofing to name a few—and the ability to create a custom Workspace. Affinity Designer’s Studio provides some of the same features—color swatches, effects, brushes and styles—but these are rudimentary in comparison. While the program is equipped with a broad range of effects, and supports an expanded selection of vector shapes and the ability to load Photoshop brushes (.abr files), it lacks the capability to import libraries of Photoshop patterns (.pat) and custom shapes (.csh), which may give pause to designers who have amassed large libraries for these design elements.

Recent updates to Affinity Designer integrated PANTONE color swatches and the ability to activate artboards. These improvements are indications that the developers at Serif understand the needs of professional designers and are working to meet those needs.

Availability
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For now, Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo, Serif’s image editing software, are available for worldwide purchase on Mac OS only. The Windows beta version is now available for download, but there is no information about Affinity companion apps for mobile devices. Adobe CC is available for Mac and Windows and the Adobe mobile apps let users create and preserve editable artwork in the Creative Cloud for use across platforms.

Affinity Designer vs. Adobe Illustrator: the verdict?
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In terms of function and style, Affinity Designer is an impressive, low-budget alternative to Adobe Illustrator. It’s suitably simple for beginners to use as a learning tool but sufficiently powerful for freelance graphic artists on a budget. Full-service designers who need to create multi-page documents will still need to rely on InDesign—or the old Quark Xpress, as Serif has not yet released a comparable alternative. For comprehensive features, tools and shortcuts, Adobe CC has Affinity beat. However, if Serif keeps the pace, we may soon see the Affinity suite become a major competitor in the graphic software market.

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About the author: Katharine M. is a writer, graphic designer and visual artist—sometimes simultaneously. She’s published two books and a graphic novel. She’s passionate about pop culture, tourism, publishing and crafting.

Any comments?

First of all, thank you for this article. It is very well written and it seems impartial enough. However, I have to make just two comments. I’m a professional packaging designer and, at our company we only use Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer for all of our work. Yes, I must agree that Affinity Designer doesn’t have all the features yet, but I believe they’ll come.

I just wanted to add a piece of information. Affinity Designer has the ability to export completed files using the following formats: PNG, JPEG, GIF, TIFF, PSD, PDF, SVG and EPS. Furthermore, currently this app also has the ability to work with multipage documents, through the use of multiple artboards.

Carlos I’m surprise your company use only Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer for all your work. What country are you from? is that company a new company? or do they have some kind of relationship with Serif company? There is nothing that I think with stand or look professionally without Adobe… Believe me or not. I will really like to see some of your designs haha

Alex

Aug 17 2016

Hi Carlos – I’m with you on working with Affinity. Right now I’m mostly focused on Affinity Designer, not as much on Photo. However I can say that Designer has replaced Adobe Illustrator and Indesign for me, even without a Affinity Publisher yet out in the market.

I also had to respond also to Bran’s comment. I am a professional designer and have created many high end design projects during my stint as a producer for one of the big studios, and have also created advertising campaigns in Amsterdam, Warsaw, London and also throughout China. Adobe has been my longstanding tools of choice, and there was no other option … until now.

While I live, breathe and drink Photoshop and have intricate designs that require a lot of RAM and CPU power to manage all the intricate designs, I have found Illustrator lacking in accuracy – yes I said it. Also, try placing a mid complex AI file in InDesign – it hogs InDesign. Anyone ever try Gaussian blur or pixel masking part of a placed PSD file in InDesign – oh right, you can’t do that.

Affinity’s new paradigm, and I’m very excited about that, is to combine raster and vector editing… at the same time. Adobe is stuck in the old paradigm – and to shade an object in Illustrator you have to create a complex grid system, for hours. Who has time for that? I just want to create and be able to combine the best of vector and raster in the same document.

Also, I don’t use the other Adobe tools. For video editing I use Da Vinci Resolve 14 – want to talk industry standard (hint: it’s not Premiere Pro). Or sound editing – Fairlight and Izotope, not Audition. Color? I already said Da Vinci. Effects – After Effects still quite decent but now a crowded market.

Adobe is an excellent company but try Affinity for iPad – Adobe is late to that game. Makes getting an iPad Pro a real thing, not a fanboy thing anymore. Try Sketch and Affinity Designer for UI design – Adobe has lost that.

So let’s not get uppity. New tools for the job are coming together, and it’s great.

Cynthia

Aug 17 2016

Thank you, Carlos. I thought it odd that Affinity Designer wouldn’t, at least, save or export to PDF. I’m glad to hear of the other formats too. I’m also glad to hear that your company uses the Affinity products exclusively. I’m getting ready to convert to them myself and am very heartened by your info.

Tracey

Aug 17 2016

Thank you, I was wondering about this! Excited to start my trial of this and get rid of Adobe for good.

Tried Inkscape and GIMP and didnt like either. Currently using Sketchables though it is far from perfect it has a lot of features I like. Use it largely for doing detailed and realistic landscapes and wildlife drawings/paintings from scratch. one feature i love with Sketchables is the way i can scale it up over 400% for detail work. Will Affinity work for me? There seems to be no way to try it first?

It looks like there is a free trial option for Affinity, once you scroll to the bottom of this page.

Darryl

Aug 17 2016

Actually infinity zooms in to an insane 1,000,000 times. I kid you not!

Bran

Aug 17 2016

Heidi, a software having a lot of features doesn’t really make it the best. Sometimes it get people confuse instead. Even if Affinity comes up with a feature that when users speak it do everything for them, i bet ya it will still fall before the years to come. Pray for them

laura cameron

Aug 17 2016

Free trial is available for Affinity. I haven’t tried it yet, don’t want to waste the trial period while I’m busy learning other programs. Inkscape and Gimp are not self-explanatory, but I have found many useful tutorials on line and there seems to be a vast support community of users. Every time I can’t figure out how to do something I Google it and find a clear explanation. So I’m sticking with them until I achieve mastery. I believe open source is the future.

Bran

Aug 17 2016

I can remember back in 2014 there were some softwares that came out and they added to them as professional designing software. Where are they today? all left and gone because they realize no one could stand Adobe…. I am just laughing at the Affinity stuffs even if i haven’t use it. I tried lot of them like this back in 2014 nothing good came out before they pack their bags and ran away hahaha

“I am just laughing at the Affinity stuffs even if i haven’t use it.”
– And there it is… comments from an uninformed individual, in which they openly admit to having no actual experience, trying to troll a thread. Ugh! The feeble mind of the online troll.

Zoltan

Aug 17 2016

I used Adobe Illustrator when it first came out. Since then they have added a lot of features. If they would have stopped at CS3, I would still be able to get 100% of my work done. The new features do not add that much, maybe another 3% capability to what I need. Therefore, I’m sure Affinity would be a good alternative for me – I’m going to switch and not pay monthly subscription. What a waste of money to pay for Adobe.

Illustrator is not a waste of money, but like you have said – It has a lot of useless features. For a newbie in Graphics it’s very hard to use and understand. When Adobe introduced Xd (Experience Design) I hoped that it will replace Illustrator with a software more simpler and easier to use, but that’s what not they had in mind. Hopefully, Affinity came. Sincerely I was looking forward for a new competitor for Illustrator because all the industry standards were made by Illustrator and this, economically and technically is not right. This lack of a good competitor caused all the professional design creation standards to be set by Adobe and this was bad for the industry. Maybe not all the talented folks out there can afford Illustrator for competing worldwide with their graphic design. This lack of competitors was bad also because all the well rated design marketplaces adopted Adobe standards and not all the folks could keep up with Adobe’s prices to compete on those markets.
In my opinion it’s good that Affinity came, hopefully it will balance a little bit the creative marketplace.

Barbara

Aug 17 2016

I just want to say that I am learning Affinity Designer because I really can’t afford Adobe illustrator. It is such a waste of money. Glad I found Affinity Designer. Very affordable. Download the demo and try it. Will save you thousands. No monthly fee. Just 50 bucks.

I am a co-owner of a small independent weekly newspaper, and am looking to replace Adobe products, ever since they killed purchase-to-own and sabotaged existing installs by not supporting them. I love what I see with Affinity, EXCEPT that it will not import MSWord docs. This is crucial for anyone designing anything with text coming from various writers. Our newsroom has a LibreOffice workflow and we use the .doc format for everything. This seems like such a small functionality, with such huge implications. So, unfortunately, I will not be able to use Affinity products until I am able to import text in a format that is widely accepted as the standard for writers. Please help us out here!

The Article is objective and a good contrast comparison of the two programs. Although I have had no experience with Adobe, my experience with the Serif Company has been outstanding knowing upgrades are always steadily on their way following a familiar pattern of the past. In my opinion, the seasoned professional, as well as the up and coming newbie, will discover Affinity Designer to be so very strong, unified and intuitive it will be a pleasure to learn and very easy to remember and apply. Thank you for your fine assessments of the two Katharine M. they are well appreciated.

Thanks for the article. What I find interesting is that plenty of video folks I know (full-time freelancer 10+ years myself) are moving away from Adobe. Often it is the same story: post production is done in Resolve and Fusion, graphics related work is done with Affinity Photo/Designer. But it is just very natural, people are getting tired of subscriptions for bloated software. It is great that there are finally real alternatives for people whose income depends on these tools. I’ve used Photoshop since version 3, that makes 24 years. Can’t believe it’s now over!

Affinity Designer was just released for iOS a few months ago, and they recently had a 30% off special. After trying it for the iPad Pro, I can say without a single doubt, that it’s the greatest vector app to ever be released for a mobile device.

Then, I realized it was a touch-friendly, Apple Pencil-friendly, clone of their desktop software, as well. So, after the $14 purchase of the app, I bought the desktop version of Affinity Designer for my Mac and Windows systems (@ $35 ea. w/ the 30% off.) Then, I bought the hardcover book created by Serif with just as much love, thought and detail that was put into the software cross-platform.

So, think about it – $125 total, for a cross-platform Adobe killer that isn’t just great, but unbeatable for the price and intuitive interface.

Looks like Affinity has made quite a few changes since this article. I’d love to see a recent update comparing the two now. Lots of folks interested in moving away from some of the Adobe products who would love the opinion from the 99d crew.

I just finished a logo design in Affinity Designer, and it was my first time using it. Whenever I Googled how to do something, the answer was almost always, “can’t be done”. Try changing the background color for example. It was a frustrating experience.

It’s my belief that no one actually chooses Designer over AI for it’s features— it’s purely a money decision.

You should never choose a tool because it’s cheaper, as that only leads to problems and compromises. Pick the tool that’s right for the job.

I have been freelance designer professionally for six years, and honestly, I will be keeping my Adobe CC subscription so I can deliver goods in those formats ( You can copy over your vectors from Affinity to Illustrator and save out ) but I am about to go full on Affinity because it seriously looks better…. I mean, It does guys, lets all stop being fan boys and open up our hearts to the new age, Adobe has been scraping our pockets for too long, we really need to end this whole age of duopolies controlling the markets ( supposed to not happen in the US ) but it totally does and is. So lets put our foot down and try some new products and force Adobe to compete with that and innovate more.

Bottom Line, Affinity is innovating, and Adobe has been adding some cool things and mostly barely useful things for a while now, not to mention, the software has become increasingly bloated over the last few years.

I say down with Adobe all day, I have been saying it since I started using it, never liked them or the product, I have just been forced to use it. Not any more, Affinity, here I come!

Love Adobe. Using CS3 and CS5. Agree that a subscription is bad. Consumers need to stop upgrading, the we will again control the market. I love CS3 and a few features of CS5 are not impressive to me. All of the upgrading is unnecessary, however, I really do not like Apple, the company. When Adobe stopped making Flash, I knew they were being herded the a downfall, and now Apple is going for the kill. Hopefully Adobe will regain their senses and stop letting Greedy Apply put them out of business. As soon as the “cheap” software ruin Adobe, the price will go up, and once again the consumer will be duped.
I do not have noe want to spend the time to learn to use new software. I want to get work done.

Edwin Morris

Aug 17 2016

Adobe Illustrator is an extremely capable program with a plethora of abilities, especially available in the Appearance palette.
Designer on the other hand offers the sort of experience with the pen and pointer that I loved in Freehand. It is intuitively pleasurable to use for straightforward drawing and has a lot of promise for the future at a very reasonable price and without the major problems of subscription software.

Ahhh, yes. Freehand was outstanding, so much better than Illustrator. I’ve been in this industry since 1991 (Photoshop 1.0.7, Freehand 3.1). Adobe has often been a disappointment and Illustrator has had such a stranglehold on vector artwork. Sketch has been fantastic and was part of my transition away from Adobe, but it’s no good for exporting to PDF. About to give Affinity Designer a whirl and have high hopes.

Michael

Aug 17 2016

It’s good to see that Adobe has some competition. I’ll have to give Affinity a try given its reasonable price. I believe Adobe has dominated the creative industry for too long and they have produced some bloated, expensive and confusing software, even though their products are still quite powerful.

I take issue with the statement that Sketch took on Adobe and lost. This is in no way true. Sketch actually beat Adobe by creating a tool specifically for UI design and became the industry standard. In no way is Sketch meant to compete directly with Illustrator in terms of drawing or illustration. I still draw and design icons in Illustrator, but when it’s time to lay out dozens of interface screens, Sketch is the “go to” tool. Adobe’s entry in the UI design market, XD, is a poor imitation of Sketch and they have a long way to go to catch up in this space.